… After taking an airplane ride two years ago, Trayvon decided he wanted to learn to fly, his uncle Ronald Fulton said. The teen attended a Miami aviation school part time and was studying to be an engineer, a path to realizing his ambition, Fulton said.
Math was Trayvon’s favorite subject.
He liked to tinker, and he was good with his hands. He once took apart and repaired a broken scooter, Fulton said, and he liked to construct model cars and airplanes and draw pictures of things he wanted to build.
“He was extremely creative,” said Michelle Kypriss, Trayvon’s English teacher at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School in Miami. “He just loved building things. He really was intrigued by how things worked.”
She described Trayvon, a junior, as an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness.
His uncle said Trayvon was still a typical kid who loved sports, music and was just feeling the first flush of youth. “He was trying to start driving. He was just finding out about girls.” …Orlando Sentinel
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The 2011 Florida Statutes
Title XLVI
CRIMESChapter 776
JUSTIFIABLE USE OF FORCEView Entire Chapter
776.013?Home protection; use of deadly force; presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm.—
(1)?A person is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another when using defensive force that is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm to another if:
(a)?The person against whom the defensive force was used was in the process of unlawfully and forcefully entering, or had unlawfully and forcibly entered, a dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle, or if that person had removed or was attempting to remove another against that person’s will from the dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle; and
(b)?The person who uses defensive force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry or unlawful and forcible act was occurring or had occurred.
(2)?The presumption set forth in subsection (1) does not apply if:
(a)?The person against whom the defensive force is used has the right to be in or is a lawful resident of the dwelling, residence, or vehicle, such as an owner, lessee, or titleholder, and there is not an injunction for protection from domestic violence or a written pretrial supervision order of no contact against that person; or
(b)?The person or persons sought to be removed is a child or grandchild, or is otherwise in the lawful custody or under the lawful guardianship of, the person against whom the defensive force is used; or
(c)?The person who uses defensive force is engaged in an unlawful activity or is using the dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle to further an unlawful activity; or
(d)?The person against whom the defensive force is used is a law enforcement officer, as defined in s. 943.10(14), who enters or attempts to enter a dwelling, residence, or vehicle in the performance of his or her official duties and the officer identified himself or herself in accordance with any applicable law or the person using force knew or reasonably should have known that the person entering or attempting to enter was a law enforcement officer.
(3)?A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.
(4)?A person who unlawfully and by force enters or attempts to enter a person’s dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle is presumed to be doing so with the intent to commit an unlawful act involving force or violence.
(5)?As used in this section, the term:
(a)?“Dwelling” means a building or conveyance of any kind, including any attached porch, whether the building or conveyance is temporary or permanent, mobile or immobile, which has a roof over it, including a tent, and is designed to be occupied by people lodging therein at night.
(b)?“Residence” means a dwelling in which a person resides either temporarily or permanently or is visiting as an invited guest.
(c)?“Vehicle” means a conveyance of any kind, whether or not motorized, which is designed to transport people or property.
History.—s. 1, ch. 2005-27. …Florida Legislature website
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And then there’s Florida’s “stand your ground” law…
… Sanford, Fla. police said Zimmerman has claimed self defense, so they’ve handed the case over to the state attorney.
But, as NPR’s Joel Rose reported this morning, Florida law may mean prosecuting Zimmerman could prove difficult.
“As long as you are somewhere you have a lawful right to be, if someone attacks you, the words of the statute are you can meet force with force, including deadly force, if you reasonably believe that that is necessary,” Jeffrey Bellin, who teaches law at Southern Methodist University, told Joel.
That law is known as the “Stand Your Ground,” or “Shoot First” law and it’s been controversial since it was passed in 2005. Basically, The Christian Science Monitor reports, the law gets rid of the English Law concept of “duty to retreat” from a situation that is dangerous outside your home.
Bellin told the Monitor that the law makes judging self defense harder for prosecutors because it could potentially negate “the extent to which a person claiming self-defense may have aggravated the situation.” …NPR
Cross posted from Prairie Weather]
UPDATE: Did neighborhood watch shooter George Zimmerman, who says he was defending himself against Martin, who was armed with Skittles an an iced tea, mutter a racial slur? ABC News has a report suggesting this has now become a possibility — and also looking into police errors. Part of it:
The Florida police department handling the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen by a self-appointed neighborhood watch leader admitted to ABC News tonight that investigators missed a possible racist remark by the shooter as he spoke to police dispatchers moments before the killing.
The admission comes a day after the Justice Department announced that it has launched an investigation of the slaying of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman last month as a possible hate crime.
On a tape of one of Zimmerman’s 911 calls the night of the shooting, he is heard saying under his breath what sounds like “f**ing coons.” Seconds later he confronted Martin and after a brief scuffle shot him dead.
The Florida police department handling the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen by a self-appointed neighborhood watch leader admitted to ABC News tonight that investigators missed a possible racist remark by the shooter as he spoke to police dispatchers moments before the killing.
The admission comes a day after the Justice Department announced that it has launched an investigation of the slaying of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman last month as a possible hate crime.
On a tape of one of Zimmerman’s 911 calls the night of the shooting, he is heard saying under his breath what sounds like “f**ing coons.” Seconds later he confronted Martin and after a brief scuffle shot him dead.
ABC’s report raising still more questions:
The Sanford Police Department has come under withering criticism for failing to reach out to Martin’s girlfriend, who was talking to the teen on his cell phone and heard the altercation with Zimmerman take place.
Among other issues, police have been criticized for:
*Withholding a batch of telling 911 calls, including the one revealing Zimmerman’s possible racist remark.
*Sending a narcotics detective to the scene, instead of a homicide detective, as is typical for homicides.
*And failing to administer a drug and alcohol test to Zimmerman that night, which homicide investigator Rod Wheeler called a “fatal flaw in the investigation.”
“The fact that Mr. Zimmerman was not given a toxicology test or breathalyzer examination is huge. Very huge,” Wheeler said. He also wondered why Zimmerman’s vehicle was not investigated or impounded.
,,,,,Martin had left his father’s fiance’s home to buy a pack of skittles at a convenience store. On the way back he called his 16-year-old girlfriend. She was on the phone with him as he told her about a man following him.
Watch the ABC report: